Advantages of Rsn method over correspondence analysis used for simulated data

In order to indicate the advantages of the Rsn method, we compared it with the widely used method, correspondence analysis (Cb) based on the data simu lated to those of benthic macrofauna. It is proved that the Rsn method has the following advantages. The sites of similar species composition are disp layed in a mass, and their patterns correspond well with the spatial distri butions of the species, that is preferable to the cluster analysis. The cum ulative ratio of eigen values of the Rsn matrix is relatively high. This me ans that an error component included in the matrix is low, while the essent ial information is well preserved. The Rsn method, therefore, is applicable to the data analysis of benthic macrofauna.